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Collaborators Yo-Yo Ma, Chris Thile, and Edgar Meyer tackle the music of J.S....
In his liner-note essay for the new Bach Trios (Nonesuch) pianist and composer Timo Andres writes of Bach’s work, “Part of the utility of his music is its protean adaptability to any number of...
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Sound artist Olivia Block explores the infinite possibilities of the organ at...
One of the recurring tricks in the tool kit of extraordinary Chicago sound artist Olivia Block is to toy with the listener’s perception by playing with the boundaries between natural and artificial...
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A crossover star in the making, Skepta exposes London’s grime underground to...
When a superstar rapper teams with an up-and-comer it has the potential to obscure what the latter has already built. So now that Kanye and Drake have taken interest in grime artist Skepta these past...
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Chicago psych outfit Dark Fog melt mournful passages into astral pop melodies
On Anatomy of a Sellout (Logan Hardware) Dark Fog run their glowing nuggets of psych through a rock tumbler, retaining the genre’s impenetrable mystique while polishing away much of the indulgent...
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Matthew Duvall organizes the world premiere of a piece that features nearly...
“Whisper” isn’t a word that usually springs to mind when one thinks of percussion, but with his diverse program “Whisper(s)” Eighth Blackbird percussionist Matthew Duvall actively explores quiet sounds...
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Drummer Scott Amendola and Hammond B-3 maven Wil Blades produce a sound...
On the cover of their cheekily titled new album Greatest Hits (Sazi), Bay Area drummer Scott Amendola and Hammond B-3 groove merchant (and Evanston native) Wil Blades are pitted against each another...
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Japanese postrock powerhouse Mono bring back the strings on Requiem for Hell
For their ninth full-length album, last year’s Requiem for Hell (Temporary Residence), this Japanese postrock institution took inspiration from the most famous grouping of circles: the nine that...
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Chicago-based rapper Smino carries his past into the future
On his debut album, Blkswn (Zero Fatigue/Downtown), Chicago-based rapper Chris Smith Jr. (aka Smino) makes a point of telling you where he came from.…
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Philip Glass’s score for the opera The Perfect American might be his crowning...
Philip Glass’s 2013 opera about Walt Disney is based on a 2001 novel by Peter Stephan Jungk. Focused on the last three months of Disney’s life, The Perfect American imagines what might have passed...
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Pianist Cory Smythe dissolves the lines between composition and improvisation...
A growing number of musicians have mastered both notated and improvised music, but few have done it with more skill, insight, and sensitivity than pianist Cory Smythe. He won a classical Grammy for...
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The Wedding Present release their most ambitious work to date with Going,...
Since their formation in 1985 up to and following a hiatus that stretched between 1997 and 2004, Leeds-based indie-rock outfit the Wedding Present have consistently turned over lineups, with front man...
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Dressy Bessy knock the dust off a fading indie-pop sound and return with...
I’ll be the first to admit that I never really considered the return of the Denver-based, Elephant 6 Collective-associated indie-pop act Dressy Bessy. It’s not because I didn’t love the band’s first...
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Veteran jazz reedist Charles Lloyd begins a new chapter with the...
At 79, Charles Lloyd has taken part in a major chunk of modern jazz history. He’s called himself a “sound seeker,” and during the 60s and early 70s he became an inheritor of John Coltrane’s spiritual...
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Alabama metal trio Hexxus employ a lighter touch before the grind
Two-thirds of this young Alabama trio is made up of veterans of Hog Mountin, an underrated southern-fried swamp-metal outfit that was once a jewel of the Birmingham scene. But on their debut...
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Tobin Sprout’s lo-fi pop majesty rides again
What defined the classic era of Guided by Voices—the stretch from 1990 to ’96 when the lo-fi indie rock kings produced their undisputed best work—was the push and pull between the band’s figurehead,...
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Chicago outre-pop whiz Nnamdi Ogbonnaya keeps you on your toes on Drool
Earlier this month prolific multi-instrumentalist Nnamdi Ogbonnaya told MTV News that his new album, Drool (Sooper/Father Daughter), is his first indebted to his experience in Chicago, the city that’s...
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British soprano Juliet Fraser brings haunting fragility and intimacy to her...
On a dazzling new recording for Hat Art, British soprano Juliet Fraser brings haunting beauty and weightless precision to Morton Feldman’s Three Voices (1982), an epic work simpatico with her skill...
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Spektral Quartet and Third Coast Percussion celebrate the work of Augusta...
The Chicago Symphony Orchestra’s prestigious Mead Composer-in-Residence for the longest term so far (from 1997 to 2006, under both Daniel Barenboim and Pierre Boulez), Augusta Read Thomas has been an...
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Mike Reed’s Flesh & Bone puts skin on some bad memories
From its inception, drummer-composer Mike Reed’s quartet People, Places & Things has served as both a vehicle for exploring memories and a platform for collaborations. He continues on both fronts...
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Angaleena Presley of the Pistol Annies shows she’s ready for the spotlight...
Angaleena Presley is probably the least-known member of brash all-star country trio the Pistol Annies, where she’s flanked by Miranda Lambert and Ashley Monroe, but judging from the release of her...
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